Discussion Paper
What Explains the June Spike in Treasury Settlement Fails?
McMorrow, Michael; Keane, Frank M.; Fleming, Michael J.; Martin, Antoine (2014-09-19)
In June of this year?as we noted in the preceding post?settlement fails in U.S. Treasury securities spiked to their highest level since the implementation of the fails charge in May 2009. Our first post reviewed what fails are, why they arise, and how they can be measured. In this post, we dig into the fails data to identify possible explanations for the high level of fails in June. We observe that sequential fails of several benchmark securities accounted for the lion?s share of fails in June, but that fails in seasoned securities?which have been trending upward for some time?were also ...
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20140919a

Discussion Paper
Characterizing the Rising Settlement Fails in Seasoned Treasury Securities
Keane, Frank M.; Fleming, Michael J. (2016-01-04)
In a 2014 post, we described what settlement fails are, why they arise and matter, and how they can be measured. A subsequent post explored the determinants of the increased volume of U.S. Treasury security settlement fails in June 2014. Part of that episode reflected a steady increase in settlement fails of seasoned securities. In this post, we explore the characteristics of seasoned fails in recent years, in order to better understand the risks associated with such fails.
Liberty Street Economics , Paper 20160104